Vehicles for the transport of merchandise, products or the like are known wherein a container may be tilted with respect to the vehicle body by mechanical or fluid power systems for the discharge of the load. This arrangement facilitates unloading, if the products are merely to be placed in piles adjacent the vehicles. However, difficulties are encountered when it is desired to discharge the products with respect to outside systems, for example onto slides, conveyor belts, forklifts, or the like, because the prior art vehicles have generally discharged the products from the container at a relatively low elevation. Particular problems are encountered with respect to smaller transport vehicles, for example light weight motor vehicles, since their wheel base is quite low, which does not permit an adequate arrangement of the transported product into piles due to the low elevation of discharge.
Further disadvantages of the prior art present themselves when the transporting motor vehicle is permanently fixed to the container, so that the vehicle will remain inactive during the loading and unloading operations, which in some particular cases or circumstances can involve a considerable length of time and in addition to this other small removals may have to be made if the container cannot be separated from the vehicle; an urban waste disposal system is a particular example of an environment wherein these disadvantages are encountered. Considerable advantages are obtained when a plurality of containers are served by a single transport motor vehicle, and in such a system, the ease with which the container is placed upon the ground and loaded onto the truck become quite important, particularly when the container is provided with its own wheels so that it may be moved about, filled and when fully loaded it may be placed upon the vehicle and thereafter taken to its destination. For particular products, it may be necessary to place the container upon the ground in order to facilitate unloading, because such prior systems cannot unload by tipping.